Indian American nursing student Jasmine Joseph missing for a week after pretending to go to school in New York

March 4, 2014

The mystery of the 22-year-old’s disappearance deepens.

By Deepak Chitnis

WASHINGTON, DC: Jasmine V. Joseph, a 22 year-old from New York, whose parents are originally from Kerala, has been missing for over one week now, and the paucity of evidence – not to mention questions about her enrollment in school – have friends, family, and investigators scrambling to find her.

Jasmine Joseph (courtesy of CBS-2 New York)

A resident of Syosset, New York, Joseph was last seen on February 24. According to her parents, Joseph last spoke with them on that day, around 5:15 PM, saying that she was returning home from the library at the New York Institute of Technology (NYIT) in Old Westbury, at which she was studying nursing.

Unfortunately, Joseph never made it home that night. Her parents have told police and friends that Jasmine was last seen wearing black and white sneakers, black jeans, and a green sweater, and was most likely driving her 2012 silver Nissan Altima sedan with New York license plate GAD3453.

But, in an odd twist in the case, NYIT told investigators that Joseph has not been enrolled at the school since the spring semester of 2013, which ended last May. Her father, however, told reporters from a local news affiliate that he paid for that semester’s tuition in full.

Sony Joseph, an electrical technician with the Metropolitan Transportation authority who is Jasmine’s father, was in India with his wife over the winter vacation in December-January of 2013-2014, and said that he left his credit card with his daughter so she could buy whatever she needed for school and pay the upcoming semester’s tuition, too. If Joseph was currently enrolled at NYIT, she would be a junior.

Joseph’s mother, Lucky Joseph, is a nurse registered with the North Shore-LIJ Health System. She has been trying to get the word out about her daughter, the latest Indian American youth to go missing after the tragic loss of Illinois student Pravin Varughese last month.

Joseph is said to be about 5’4” and roughly 120 pounds, with brown eyes and black hair. Anyone who knows anything about her should call Nassau County Missing Persons Squad at (516)-573-7347. A Facebook page has been created to help support the cause, along with a $5,000 reward for any information leading to Joseph’s discovery. Flyers have also been distributed throughout the area to help spread awareness.

NYIT has also been cooperating with the police investigation into Joseph’s disappearance. The school put out the following statement for the media:

“The NYIT Old Westbury community has been in contact with and is cooperating with the family of a former student, whom the family has reported as missing. Many students and staff members are actively helping to spread the word and share photos, in the hopes that the public will recognize this young woman and contact her family or the authorities. The young woman has not been a student enrolled at NYIT since dMay 2013; as such, we are unable to provide any current information. Our thoughts are with her loved ones.”